Photos

Luis Geraldo, 52, smokes a cigarette in his house where the co-owners have left and their part of the building demolished, at the Vila Autodromo favela in Rio de Janeiro January 28, 2015. Street addresses jump in the Vila Autodromo favela: 39, 42, 48, 51. The missing numbers belonged to homes now reduced to rubble to make way for the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro. But 18 months before the Olympic Games begin, about 50 families still refuse to leave, clinging on despite increasing isolation and irregular access to basic services like water and electricity. The land conflict in Vila Autodromo, which feels like a ghost town with 90 percent of its residents gone, shows the underside of Rio's attempt to use the 2016 Olympic Games to modernize the city. Picture taken on January 28, 2015. To match BRAZIL-OLYMPICS/EVICTIONS REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes (BRAZIL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST SPORT OLYMPICS SOCIETY)